I’ll admit that “Run to the Hills” on Expert drums in the original Rock Band hurt me physically, and ended up in at least one broken drum set. But I’m a glutton for punishment, and a fan of metal so it’s with great pleasure for me to pass along some good news: 12 Iron Maiden tracks will be coming to the Rock Band Music Store on June 9.

The content is a mixture of master tracks, as well as recent live recordings from their tour documentary, the awesomely-named Flight 666. The tracks are as follows:

• “Aces High (Live)”
• “2 Minutes to Midnight”
• “The Trooper”
• “Wasted Years”
• “The Number of the Beast”
• “Run to the Hills”
• “Can I Play With Madness”
• “The Clairvoyant”
• “Powerslave”
• “Fear of the Dark (Live)”
• “Hallowed By Thy Name (Live)”
• “Iron Maiden (Live)”

No word on pricing, but we guess each track will cost the usual $1.99/200 Wii Points/160 MS Points, and there will be a package that will offer a tiny, but completely metal discount.

My take: Do want. Yours?

source Destructoid

IGN has just reported that Xseed Games (the publishers of the addictive Retro Game Challenge) has picked up the North American release rights to widely acclaimed Japanese Wii RPG/adventure game Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon.

Previously, Namco Bandai had hinted that the company wouldn’t publish the title in the U.S., so this news comes as quite the pleasant surprise.

In Fragile, players take on the role of a young boy in a post-apocalyptic world, who — armed with a flashlight — sets off on a journey to find a girl he has become obsessed with. Along the way, the boy solves puzzles and fights off a variety of enemies to get to the bottom of the girl’s disappearance.

You can read IGN’s interview with localization manager Kenji Hosoi right here to get more details on the exciting news!

What do you think? Are you super excited to see the gorgeous Fragile make its way here? Do you think this is exactly the kind of game the Wii needs to help expand its software library? And, just because there weren’t enough capital letters in this post: OMG I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS!

[Thanks, Phoenix Gamma!]

source Destructoid

Get excited, Wii owners! Visceral Games has announced that Dead Space Extraction will be hitting store shelves this year on September 29 in North America and October 2 in Europe. No price was announced, but one would assume Extraction to go for the $40-$50 price range.

In my opinion, the first Marvel Ultimate Alliance game sucked so hard that Hoover should be researching ways to incorporate it into its vacuum cleaners. I’ve seen prostitutes in Tijuana who would go green with envy at the sight of it. That thing put collapsed stars to shame.

That said, I’m a large fan of these types of games and feel that the first in the series was just a error. An egregious, horrible mistake. But if the plan is for Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 to follow the events of the “Civil War” story arc, my interest is seriously piqued. Just, please, let’s not screw this up a second time.

Check out a trailer after the jump. It shows off a ton of great-looking superhero cutscene footage, including a lot of Deadpool. Oh, and you get to see all-American Steve Rogers wipe the smug grin off that arrogant prick Tony Stark. That right there is practically worth the price of admission.

source Destructoid

Continuing the trend of the week, Majesco has revealed their E3 line-up. They’re only showing six titles next week and one of those games is sure to be a giant hit with retro fans.

4mm has announced its first game, Def Jam Rapstar, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii.

Okay, so what the hell is it? We think it’s a music game, but we’re not quite sure. In an interview with IGN, 4mm’s Nicholas Perrett says a lot of things, but stops short saying exactly what Def Jam Rapster is. According to Perrett, at E3 next week we’ll see what innovations they’ve in store, including how they will “make the experience of rapping a song fun.”

Based on the trailer (which features a wide-range of folks lip-syncing Young Jeezy’s “I Put On”), it looks like you’ll be using a microphone peripheral, prone to “spit dope rhymes, yo” along with tracks. But Perett makes it sound like more than a simple hip-hop version of SingStar.

“We’ll also give you things to do once you’ve finished singing a song,” he tells IGN before going into vague details about how 4mm plans to create a community, even hinting at MMO-like elements.

The appointment we made with 4mm for E3 just got a bit more interesting. We’ll have more details and info on Def Jam Rapstar next week. You can see the trailer right now, right after the jump.

source Destructoid

Natsume has ten games they’re going to be showing off at E3 next week, four of which are Harvest Moon games. Yes, it seems people just can’t get enough of Harvest Moon. Here’s the full list of what we’re expecting to see next week:

• Adventures To Go (PSP)
• Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition (Wii)
• Afrika (PS3)
• Cheer We Go! (DS)
• Harvest Moon: Animal Parade (Wii)
• Harvest Moon: Frantic Farming (DS)
• Harvest Moon: My Tiny Shop (WiiWare)
• Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands (DS)
• Reel Fishing: Angler’s Dream (Wii)
• Squishy Tank (DS)

The biggest game on the list here is Afrika, if only because people can’t seem to close up about the game. Talking of which, Wii owners will be getting an Afrika-like game in the form of Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition. And before anyone complains in the comments, the above screenshot is for Animal Kingdom and not Afrika.

Great news and okay news for you guys.

A remaster of the classic Stan Bush track “The Touch” — from the 1986 Transformers: The Movie soundtrack — is now available as a free download for Guitar Hero: World Tour. Yes, right now on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the Wii Shop. PlayStation Network will update later, and you can expect to download the track then if you have one of them there PlayStation 3s. This is good news, I’m sure you’ll all agree.

It’s the game we’ve all been waiting for! Sega has this day announced Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, a “fast and furious battle to the finish line.” It’s coming to the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS, and it’s due out in early 2010.

All-Stars Racing seems to be the spiritual successor to Sega Superstars Tennis, which was actually surprisingly good, despite its simplicity. Hopefully this racing game can be just as fun. It pulls on the exact same nostalgic heartstrings, with Sonic being joined by the likes of Amigo and AiAi from Super Monkey Ball. Would it be too much to have a Streets of Rage character this time? Probably.

THQ has taken pre-E3 as the opportunity to finally reveal more information on Marvel Super Hero Squad, an action title based on the upcoming Cartoon Network animated series, The Super Hero Squad Show.

If you’re screaming “This is Marvel Ultimate Alliance for babies!” you might not be that far off. The series and game definitely looks be skewing a bit younger, but I won’t lie and say it doesn’t have my attention. The little little versions of the game’s playable heroes and villains — Captain America, Dr. Doom, Falcon, Hulk, Iron Man, Juggernaut, Miss Marvel, Silver Surfer, Thing, Thor, and Wolverine, among others — are so damned adorable!

Marvel Super Hero Squad will feature two modes, Battle and Adventure. In Battle, four players will be able to kick the crap out of one another in a battle arena. Adventure Mode features six different campaigns, each based on one of the show’s episodes which will air this fall.

Not surprisingly, Marvel Super Hero Squad is in development for Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation Portable. Check the teaser trailer after the jump.

THQ Makes Heroic Move with the Announcement of the First Video Game Based on Marvel’s Animated Series: The Super Hero Squad Show

Marvel